London

Embassies owe '£67m in fines'

The US Embassy has run up more than 63,000 congestion charge fines - and owe British authorities more than £7.2 million in unpaid fines, William Hague said today. Total unpaid congestion charge in London now stands at £67.5 million since 2003.

The government has urged foreign embassies to "pay their dues", after it was revealed that embassies had racked up outstanding fines, penalties and taxes totalling £67.5 million.

William Hague said today:

In 2012, there were 6,154 parking fines incurred by diplomatic missions and international organisations in the United Kingdom which were brought to our attention by local councils. These totalled £84,772.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has held meetings with a number of missions about outstanding parking fine debt.

In addition, in April this year we wrote to the diplomatic missions and international organisations concerned giving them the opportunity to either pay the outstanding fines or to appeal against them if they considered the fines had been issued incorrectly.